Utah John

23 I assume

This is grim. Maybe bring one of the safeties in closer. I don't see any threat from Purdy throwing deep. I hope there's nothing that will keep McCaffery from playing ... next week.

I always wonder about the broadcast delay. I'm watching NBC from Memphis. Are you watching from Buffalo?

Were you just guessing about the TD or did you see it happen? On the NBC broadcast the score came after your post.

Josh is holding his left hand like it's injured again.

Uncalled DPI on the second down pass attempt to Shakir. Ty Johnson might be the most effective rusher for the Bills tonight. Cook doesn't seem able to get traction.

I take your points but you definitely need to be careful what you wish for.

Miami's playoff chances took a hit but they still played pretty well from behind after Green Bay stomped them in the first half. There's a pileup of mediocre teams at the end of the AFC playoff list, and Miami could still pull it out. But not if they can't learn to play in the cold, not with the three other teams in their division in cold-weather cities.

Beane built the Bills to beat the Chiefs. Look at what the Chiefs do well, and then look at our defense. Fast, on the small side overall, cohesive zone pass defense. Not built to stop a Mack truck coming through the line. I don't think we'll face the Chiefs until the AFC championship assuming both teams make it that far, but I sure do hope some other team takes on Baltimore for us. By the way, in last night's game there was a Poona Ford sighting. He was playing very well for the Chargers after what Joe Buck called a wasted year in Buffalo. What happened that held him back here? He looks like the big body athlete we never seem to have at DT.

Don't count out Miami, which has straightened itself out and which has the easiest remaining schedule. Not to win the AFCE of course, but to make the playoffs.

You left out Hollins, who seems to make at least one critical catch every game. Also Knox who stepped back up with Kincaid out against the Chiefs. There's a potential problem, a good problem but a problem anyway, that the Bills have too many B+ to A- receivers, so not everyone gets to have a big game every game. Same thing with RBs, where Cook looks great but here comes Davis, playing so well he demands to be on the field, and then Johnson is playing very well too. None of the receivers is Justin Jefferson, and none of the RBs is Derrick Henry, and they can't all be on the field at the same time. Just gotta ask, though -- is the Superb Owl a new bar on Chippewa? Nice of Josh to take all the receivers there. And I really like owls so I like the name...

Summers in Buffalo are glorious but unfortunately Cooper came in just when the weather was turning to *****, so that's what his impression will be. Now he'll have to endure week after week of cold and rain or snow, and then....winter sets in. Here's hoping the joy the team brings to his soul, outweighs the displeasure the weather brings to his body, and he eagerly signs up for a team friendly contract extension.

Edmunds' crime was always being in position to watch the opponent make a play, but never preventing it. If he had turned into the player the Bills hoped he'd be as a first round pick, he'd still be here.

My mistake.

Maybe the players care about SNF, for bragging rights among the rest of the league. Certainly many fans do too, as validation that their team is important. But I don't. The late game on Sunday, particularly if it's on the road, disrupts the schedule for the players and especially the coaches for the following week. I would prefer it if the Bills got scheduled for 1 pm Sunday every game every year, except for the West Coast games. The Bills next game is a MNF game at home against the 49ers, followed by an afternoon game in Los Angeles against the Rams, which screws up the prep for the big game against the Lions the following Sunday afternoon. It could be worse (thank God some other unlucky teams have to play on Thursday night). After the NFC games, the Bills play the Pats and Jets at home, and the Pats on the road, with the first two on Sunday at 1 pm and most likely the final game also on Sunday at 1 pm. The schedule makers did the Bills right for their late season schedule. The bye coming now is so much better than an early-season bye, and the Bills have only one long trip for an away game (Los Angeles).

Unless KC loses another game, the only reason the Bills have pressure to keep winning is to get the 2 seed or even the 1 seed over Pittsburgh, whom no one seems to be paying attention to. The Steelers have 2 losses too, but only 1 loss in the AFC. The Steelers have three games left against tough opponents (Eagles, Ravens, Chiefs) and if they sweep those games plus the cupcakes, they'll get the 1 seed. Frankly if the Steelers can sweep those three games this late in the year and finish 15-2 they deserve the 1 seed. The Bills, Steelers, and Chiefs will all have 2 losses (in a best case scenario for the Bills, winning out) but the Chiefs lose tiebreakers to both others. Even if the Bills win out and also finish 15-2 I think the Steelers will get the 1 seed by virtue of a better AFC record. (Pittsburgh's easy games are division games -- two against the Bengals and one against the Browns -- and those are always tough, nasty, close games, so wins there are not a foregone conclusion.) The Chiefs have three walkovers (Raiders, Browns, Panthers), two who knows? (Texans, Broncos) and two tough games (Chargers, Steelers). The Bills have three walkovers (Patriots, Jets, Patriots), two who knows? (49ers, Rams), and one tough game (Lions). Of the three I think the Steelers and Bills are playing the best right now. KC has been winning by force of habit, even games they should be losing. They're an aging slumbering giant who roused himself to play the Bills but will have a tough time getting back up for all the remaining tough games, or even some of the others. Mahomes isn't quite as good this year (still great) but Kelce has withered into a JAG -- KC has better TEs on their roster now. Interesting coaching comparisons, too. Reid >> his boy McDermott, and it shall ever be thus until Reid retires. But McDermott and Tomlin are actually equivalent rivals (and good friends and former college teammates) so it's anyone's guess who's better. I think the Bills beat the Steelers 7 out of 10 times, but it will probably come down to one game in the playoffs.

I was at that game and saw the Bills come back twice to win. It was a long time ago and I don't recall whether Rashad had to make a spectacular catch. I know he used a very good move to get separation, and Ferguson hit him.

For pass blocking, the O line did great. But for running up the middle, no team has stopped the Bills better than the Chiefs did. Was that due to the Chiefs strong personnel, to the absence of Spencer Brown (this one gets my vote), to blocking schemes, or to the Chiefs mixing up their D line and LB assignments?

Thinking Bills-centric as I do, my concern about HC vacancies elsewhere is the potential loss of our coordinators here, or our position coaches who move on to become coordinators for other teams when their coordinator job opens up. During the Bills-Chiefs game, Romo said Bobby Babich is for sure a future HC. Really? I think he and McDermott have done a great job re-engineering the Bills D, but he's been in the DC job only a short time. Has anyone else heard that Babich might be moving up to a HC job somewhere else? Similarly Joe Brady was considered damaged goods when he came to the Bills from Carolina, but he has the Bills offense working great.

For players, yes, but McDermott forgot to pack his brain for the trip to KC.

Last year's playoffs, the defense was decimated and yet the Bills came close to winning. Today the offense is decimated. Will the Bills ever have their complete team to face the Chiefs? I know injuries are a fact of life in the NFL but when one or two positions get hit hard (LB and DB last year, WR this year plus Brown) it throws off everything.

Yeah, well. Josh became Josh for a lot of reasons, chief among them really hard work and determination to improve on Josh's part. He spend offseasons with Jordan Palmer working on fundamentals, learning how to pass properly and how to think like a QB. That was 70% of the reasons for the improvement. Daboll gets most of the rest of the credit for understanding what Josh was good at and developing an offense tailored to those aspects. Jones has never had the raw talent that Josh has, never. He was on track to do the equivalent of sleeping yourself to the middle, in corporate speak. Whatever hard work he put in was never going to make him even above average. Watching him now is painful. He's really bad.

In some quarters, two Lombardis equals automatic HOF induction. I don't buy it. He was usually just an average player.

Kincaid is much more respected as a receiver than Knox. When Kincaid is in the game, the openings for other receivers are better. And when Kincaid is targeted, he's much more likely to make the catch. Overall, the difference between what the two TEs bring to the field is more, what can each guy do, instead of, is one guy clearly better to have on the team. If the Bills have their other pass catchers available, the absence of Kincaid (if it goes that way) against the Chiefs won't matter all that much. But that assumes Coleman and Cooper are both back. It was no accident that Josh's passing efficiency went down against the Colts, when he didn't have his best receivers. The KC game is a milestone for the Bills but it's not what makes or breaks their season. The Bills are good enough to beat KC in KC in the playoffs if it comes to that, and they're also able to lose to KC at home, as we saw last year. It is NOT worth putting any player's long-term health at risk to improve the odds for this one game.

Dodson wasn't as good as Bernard or other LBs, so he wasn't going to play unless injuries. But he's substantially better than other alternatives at LB. Isn't the nature of a substitute the fact that the guy isn't as good as the starter? Why should we reject a very good substitute because he's not as good as the starters? We would be signing him so we don't have to get AJ Klein off his couch for a playoff game against Mahomes -- that's why.